“Fortunately, just when things were blackest, the war broke out.”
Catch-22
In February, I wrote an article titled “Lack of Leadership Keeps Schools Closed“. The topic was the lack of leadership in Central Bucks School District (CBSD) and the unnecessary school closures caused by it. The entire saga was only brought to light because of Right-to-Know requests made by Mrs. Jamie Walker, a concerned parent in the district who moved her children to private school when she realized that CBSD was experiencing a major leadership vacuum.
Since that article was published, everything has changed. Several studies have proven that school settings are much safer than most of “the experts” ever believed. The CDC has backed off of trying to micromanage schools. CBSD Superintendent Dr. John Kopicki resigned in disgrace. The CBSD School Board was reorganized under new leadership, then immediately removed masking requirements. Central Bucks finished out the academic year in stunningly positive fashion. Leadership made all the difference.
In contrast to CBSD, which suffered from a lack of leadership, Quakertown Community School District (QCSD) suffered from something much more surreptitious. QCSD Superintendent Dr. William Harner actively worked to alter public opinion in the community and on the QCSD School Board– all with the intention of sabotaging in-person learning.
Once again, this information was only brought to light because of RTK requests put into the district.
Background
What I’m about to show you is a sequence of events that took place in June and July of 2020, dramatically changing the way that the 2020-2021 school year would play out–not just in Quakertown, but in all of Bucks County. As we go through this, please keep in mind that Bucks County Health Department Director Dr. David Damsker released Schools Reopening Guidance on June 15, 2020. The guidance released on that date–June 15–is important. It’s at the center of the whole story, because it created a framework by which schools could get fully reopened 5 days per week. Specifically, it instructed schools to use 3 feet of distancing between students rather than the conventionally accepted 6 feet. At 3-ft distancing, schools can be open 5 full days; at 6-ft distancing, they cannot. Dr. Damsker defended his 3-ft guidance using a large meta-analysis published in the Lancet, which found that 3-ft distancing was associated with significantly reduced transmission.
Nine months later, a March 2021 study looked at whether using 3-ft or 6-ft made any difference in American schools. It found no difference at all. This study resulted in an immediate reversal of policy from the CDC, which now very openly says that 3-ft distancing is sufficient. This means that Bucks County’s guidance to use 3-ft was correct and safe all along.
Keep all of that in mind.
Setting the Stage
June 10 – Harner Provides a Hint of Things to Come
During a bizarre email exchange, Quakertown Superintendent Dr. William Harner and Morrisville Superintendent Jason Harris swap jabs at Dr. Damsker. Dr. Harner then describes the COVID-19 crisis as something that should be taken advantage of. This type of manipulative behavior turned out to be a good indication of what was to come. As you will see in subsequent emails, Dr. Harner’s motives were clearly not driven by what’s best for kids.
“In leading change, you always create to use a given crisis. Give time and info to the audience to wrestle with the data and info you are using in decision making, let it simmer a while, then they come back and ask you to solve it….. well i hope it works that way :-)
William E. Harner, Ph.D.
Superintendent”
June 15 – Dr. Damsker Releases Guidance for School Reopenings
Upon release, Dr. Damsker’s guidance begins to take off like wildfire. The Bucks County Intermediate Unit (BCIU), which coordinates guidance across all 13 Bucks County school districts, unanimously supported the guidance, saying “It’s good!“.
The next day, BCIU Executive Director Mark Hoffman shares with his staff that school districts in nearby counties (Delaware, Chester, Northampton, Pittsburgh area) are asking their Health Departments to consider adopting Dr. Damsker’s guidance. Hoffman’s staff praises him for his model “being replicated throughout the state! Kudos! Take a bow!!!“.
24 hours after Dr. Damsker released his guidance, there appeared to be nothing but strong support for it.
June 17 – Insert Jeff Sultanik
If you don’t know the name Jeff Sultanik, that’s okay. I had never heard his name until I saw all of these emails. But he is someone we all should have known about, because he is, undoubtedly, the individual most responsible for Bucks County schools failing to reopen fully in Fall 2020. He is an attorney at Fox Rothschild, LLP, a solicitor for many school districts, and general counsel for many more.
His takedown of Dr. Damsker’s (very popular) reopening guidance begins with an email in which he provides the following legal assessment:
“Bucks County school districts interpreted guidelines loosely in adopting 3 feet social distancing standards with two students per bus seat. The language in the guidance “to the extent possible:” is where the district must accommodate the guidelines as much as possible, but they are not hard, fast rules. In other words, districts will have legal and regulatory flexibility. However, I don’t think districts are going to be judged on the basis of legal or regulatory flexibility; districts will be judged based upon the various constituencies that they have within the school district and I can assure that districts will, notwithstanding their best efforts, alienate one or more of those constituencies regardless of the terms of the district’s adopted plan.“
This assessment certainly doesn’t seem too malicious, but unfortunately it’s just the beginning of Mr. Sultanik’s involvement. My favorite response to Mr. Sultanik’s assessment came from BCIU Director Mark Hoffman, who replied “Hardly says more than the obvious. No?” 😅 😅 😅
June 24 – PDE Confirms Local Authority Over Schools
While forwarding a Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) report to Bucks County superintendents, Mark Hoffman mentions that PDE recognizes the authority of local health departments. This is important, because Dr. Damsker’s guidance for Bucks County differed from Pennsylvania’s state-wide guidance. Based on the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955, Section 3(a), the Bucks County Health Department is “primarily responsible for the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable disease, including disease control in public and private schools“. Dr. Damsker’s guidance was to be take precedence over any conflicting state-level guidance, including whether to use 3-ft distancing or 6-ft.
So far we’ve established a few key things to remember:
- June 10 – Dr. Harner has a strange desire to manipulate people, or something
- June 15 – Dr. Damsker’s School Reopening Guidance was very well received across many districts and counties
- June 17 – Jeff Sultanik seemed to not be in love with Dr. Damsker’s guidance
- June 24 – PDE fully recognized local control over school district decisions
Now let’s get to the good stuff…
A Tale of Two Presentations
On June 25, Dr. Damsker presented his reopening framework to superintendents from Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. The presentation was met with rave reviews across the board. This moment represents the peak of Dr. Damsker’s popularity, when Intermediate Units and superintendents across Southeastern Pennsylvania were on-board with and ready to implement his framework.
Unfortunately, I told you that Jeff Sultanik would become a central figure in the story, and June 25 is when he makes his splash. On the same day that Dr. Damsker presented his framework to the “Four-County Superintendent Summit”, Mr. Sultanik gave a presentation of his own titled “Protecting the School Workplace: How To Reopen Safely and Address Employee Concerns“. This presentation was funded by the Pennsylvania Association of School Personnel Administrators (PASPA), the union for school administrators like superintendents and principals. It’s worth noting that Mr. Sultinak and Fox Rothschild, LLP are listed as the only “Elite” sponsor of PASPA–the highest sponsorship level that PASPA offers.
Unbelievably, while school administrators all over the state were raving about Dr. Damsker’s framework, Mr. Sultanik’s presentation, funded by the administrators’ union, spent over 11 minutes directly attacking it. You can watch the attack here.
Now I know that 11 minutes is hard to come by, but I highly encourage you to watch this hilarity. Mr. Sultanik clearly has a very poor understanding of the virus and the disease.
- 4:33 – Mr. Sultanik and Mrs. Young describe the use of water fountains as “might be fatal”. Wow…fatal water fountains. Team Apocalypse, much?
- 5:35 – Mr. Sultanik incorrectly states the origin of the virus as “Wunan, China”, with an N. I hate to be pedantic, but seriously? WuNan? If by June 2020 someone doesn’t know that the virus originated in WuHan, then they are disqualified from discussing it.
- 7:55 – While answering a question about 3-feet vs. 6-feet distancing, Mr. Sultanik makes clear that he’s completely unaware of the large-scale systematic review and meta-analysis that came out several weeks before, which Dr. Damsker based his 3-feet guidance upon.
- 9:39 – Mr. Sultanik lambasts Dr. Damsker’s guidance for not requiring stickers on the floor of hallways, to tell people which way to walk. Hallway floor stickers, lmao. This point might be the peak of Mr. Sultanik’s medical brilliance. It’s so bright that it’s actually blinding.
The Quakertown Takedown
June 27 – 10:06 am – Harner Makes Contact With Sultanik
After hearing about Mr. Sultanik’s presentation, Dr. Harner sends Mr. Sultanik a gushing unsolicited email. In the email, he writes like a schoolboy who finally finds a girl that likes him back. It’s actually kind of sweet.
“[I’ve] Been disagreeing with Dr Damsker since early March. He thought would should never have left school let alone all of the other guidance from Fauci, Birx, and the CDC.
Our 90 + person taskforce have been working nearly round the clock on our template and presentation made Thursday night. Five Board members have ES level kids and three are no-maskers. So they pushed back. Teachers and most parents are with us on how to open.“
Aaaaaaaand we’re off to the races. From this point forward, we have a clear position fully developed: Dr. Harner does not like Dr. Damsker’s approach. Furthermore, he disrespects the fact that his Board supports Dr. Damsker, and he attributes their support to having elementary-aged kids and being “no-maskers“. This goes beyond being unprofessional and reaches the border of being downright offensive. And all for what? To impress Mr. Sultanik, who he is clearly enamored with?
June 27 – 1:22 pm – Harner Pitches a “Legal Issue”
Immediately after Dr. Harner’s email to Mr. Sultanik, the two got on the phone to talk shop. Following this phone call, Dr. Harner sends BCIU Director Mark Hoffman an email informing him that Mr. Sultanik believes school districts will have legal issues if they adopt Dr. Damsker’s guidance.
Now, let’s explore a very salient point: Dr. Harner’s emails to Mr. Sultanik and Mr. Hoffman are very different in nature. His email to Mr. Sultinak is effusive and acquiescent. It agrees with the principal idea that Dr. Damsker’s guidance is unsafe. In contrast, his email to Mr. Hoffman is an attempt to position Dr. Damsker’s guidance as illegal. He is trying to sell Mr. Hoffman on Mr. Sultanik (i.e. “[Mr. Sultanik] is known to be the toughest contract negotiator in the state“) in order to convince the BCIU Director to drop Dr. Damsker’s guidance.
This is the starting point of Dr. Harner’s sabotage.
June 28 – Bucks County IU Takes Dr. Harner’s Bait
Mr. Hoffman was on vacation at the time, so he handed off the June 27 Dr. Harner email to his Deputy Executive Director, Rebecca Roberts-Malamis.
Mrs. Roberts-Malamis then reached out to Mr. Sultanik in order to clarify the concerns being raised by Dr. Harner. Notice how her initial email to Mr. Sultanik is significantly more professional than Dr. Harner’s.
Within 34 minutes of Mrs. Roberts-Malamis’ email to Mr. Sultanik, the two of them scheduled a Webex meeting for the following morning @ 9:30 am.
June 29 – 3:39 pm – IN CONFIDENCE
Mrs. Roberts-Malamis sends an update to Mr. Hoffman, with “IN CONFIDENCE” in the subject line.
Her first paragraph describes a conversation she has with Dr. Harner about QCSD. Dr. Harner clearly expresses frustration with the QCSD Board, for wanting to return to school in a more “normal” manner than he does. This email is, to my knowledge, the very last example of the QCSD Board ever pushing back against Dr. Harner.
The remainder of Mrs. Roberts-Malamis’ email is an overview of her Webex with Mr. Sultanik. The long and short of the conversation is succinctly captured by bullet #3:
“Employee should feel confident and comfortable in the workspace, knowing that maximum appropriate guidance is being followed. For Bucks County, the maximum appropriate guidance is CDC, not Bucks County DOH.“
Let’s recap. In the June 25th presentation, we clearly see that Jeff Sultanik (attorney at Fox Rothschild, LLP) is not a medical expert. Now, four days later, we clearly see that he is not a legal expert either. I would have thought a high-powered attorney would be familiar with the one and only law in Pennsylvania that applies to this situation: the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955. From Section 3(a) (emphasis mine):
“Local boards and departments of health shall be primarily responsible for the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable disease, including disease control in public and private schools“.
Remember, on June 24 PDE had reiterated that local health departments have authority over schools (because PDE actually knows the law).
Hey Mr. Sultanik–nice legal argument you’ve got there. It’d be a shame if the law disagreed with it.
June 29 – 4:00 pm – Roberts-Malamis Goes Rogue?
Twenty minutes after sending her update to her boss (Mr. Hoffman) Mrs. Roberts-Malamis sends the Sultinak presentation along with her own highlights to all superintendents in Bucks County, including QCSD Superintendent Dr. Harner. Mrs. Roberts-Malamis would have clearly known that this email would damage Dr. Damsker’s reputation and reduce support for his guidance.
Given that only twenty minutes had elapsed since she sent her boss an update, and given that her boss was away on vacation and unlikely to have talked to her via phone during the intervening timeframe, the most logical conclusion to draw is that Mrs. Roberts-Malamis went rogue when she decided to send this email to all superintendents. I am genuinely curious whether or not Mr. Hoffman authorized this, or if he would have done it himself if he was not on vacation.
June 29 – 5:18 pm – Harner Cashes In
Dr. Harner, who first brought Mr. Sultanik’s presentation to the BCIU’s awareness, now cashes in on that investment. He forwards Mrs. Roberts-Malamis’ email (from an hour earlier) to his administrative staff, using it to add credibility to his own commentary that his more-restrictive plan is defensible (because Mr. Sultanik says so, lol) but Dr. Damsker’s plan is not.
Folks, this right here is tradecraft. It’s impressive maneuvering. When I wrote that article about Dr. Kopicki and Central Bucks lacking leadership, I was describing a man who was pretty much lost in the sauce and didn’t know what to do. Dr. Harner is not that man. This is a man who knows how to take calculated steps. Notice that his comments to his staff do not mention the fact that he was the very person who planted the Sultanik presentation into the BCIU. It’s slick and impressive, no doubt. Highly in-line with his email on June 10, where he talks about manipulating people to take advantage of a crisis.
At this point in the story I firmly believe that Dr. Harner is an excellent leader, but unfortunately I seriously doubt his intellectual honesty.
June 30 – 7:28 am – Harner Goes for the Kill
In another well executed move, Dr. Harner builds upon his momentum by sending Mr. Sultanik’s criticism of Dr. Damsker’s FAQ document (released the day before) to all Bucks County superintendents. The day before, he had brilliantly used the BCIU email to shore up support amongst his own staff; now he used the Bucks County superintendents’ new-found awareness of Jeff Sultanik to chip away at support of Dr. Damsker. It’s pure, unfiltered genius. It’s also incredibly dishonest. Remember, Dr. Harner had “Been disagreeing with Dr Damsker since early March“. This email to his fellow superintendents is with his full awareness that many of them like and prefer Dr. Damsker’s guidance.
Just a couple additional points on this email. First, he proudly announces that he is in Georgia, during the few days when that state had its highest recorded reproductive rate of transmission of the whole pandemic. Doesn’t he care about Grandma?
Second, Mr. Sultanik’s criticisms of Dr. Damsker’s FAQ had nothing to do with his previous criticisms of Dr. Damsker’s reopening guidance. It’s almost as if he isn’t interested in forming a consistent, coherent argument; he’s just interested in bashing whatever Dr. Damsker says.
June 30 – 8:18 am – Harner Works the Press
In his last act of manipulation, Dr. Harner emailed a “story idea” to Marion Callahan of The Intelligencer. His idea was to compare the risk that reopening schools places on school employees with the “risk for kids by not being fully back in school. AAP pediatric doctors say back in school for mental health reasons.”
Mrs. Callahan fawns over the idea of addressing the risks assumed by employees, but says it will take her a couple weeks to write. Dr. Harner replies: “Too late. Districts will make their decision by mid July. By mid next week you will have influence.“
So, two things. 1) It’s pretty wild to see Dr. Harner acknowledge the risk to kids from schools not reopening, given that he was thus far scheming to get around Dr. Damsker’s reopening guidance. 2) His insistence that Mrs. Callahan write the article in time to “have influence” is downright disgusting. He is looking to cultivate public opinion, probably because he knows that public opinion disagrees with him (and instead agrees with his School Board, who wants to go back to school).
Mrs. Callahan did eventually get the article done and published. Unfortunately for Dr. Harner it was indeed over two weeks later 😭
The article attributes a quote to Dr. Harner that I am sure he must have been tickled pink about at the time:
“We want our kids back in school, but we want to be safe about it and apply the best practices advised by experts from the CDC for social distancing.“
The reason I say he must have been tickled pink is because he gets to talk out of both sides of his mouth while also giving a backhanded slap to Dr. Damsker. He is saying “that 3-ft guidance is not safe enough, we choose the SEE DEE SEE!”.
Well, Dr. Harner, when it comes to social distancing, Dr. Damsker was right. 3-ft was just as safe as 6-ft, all along. Maybe you can do yourself a favor and apologize to Dr. Damsker for your underhanded tactics?
July 6 – The Worst Email of All
For some reason this email exchange (the last in our story) bothers me the most. Margaret Regan, a QCSD school nurse, emails Dr. Harner and some of his administrative staff seeking permission to schedule a meeting between Dr. Damsker and QCSD faculty. She describes a nurses meeting with Dr. Damsker that she attended, saying “he gave me a little more hope and was very open to our questions and concerns“. She goes on to say “After meting with him, I did have a more positive opinion of him and both Michelle and I feel like he was being open and honest as well as more careful than I heard him in the past.“
Dr. Harner’s response to Mrs. Regan is a complete train wreck. Borderline sociopathy. He calls her off of scheduling a meeting with Dr. Damsker, which I guess we’d expect him to do, since the last thing he needs is QCSD faculty developing a positive opinion of Dr. Damsker. He also removes the administrative staff members Mrs. Regan had originally included on the email, and replaces them with Janet Pelone (Director of Pupil Services) and Lisa Hoffman (Assistant Superintendent, who is the wife of BCIU Executive Director Mark Hoffman, by the way). But the part of his response that really gets me, the part that makes it his worst email of all, is that he does not even acknowledge Mrs. Regan’s feelings. In his rush to quell positive thoughts of Dr. Damsker, he completely disregarded the fact that Dr. Damsker put this nurse’s mind at ease. During a major pandemic, when everyone’s anxiety and stress are through the roof, a nurse comes to you saying that someone gives her hope and alleviates fears, and you don’t even acknowledge that? I’m sorry, but that is apathy beyond the pale.
Vae Victis
Unfortunately, Dr. Harner’s attempts to sabotage Dr. Damsker’s reopening guidance were successful. The damage done by Mr. Sultanik’s repudiation of Dr. Damsker was irrecoverable. State guidance flowed henceforth from PDE, and key decision makers in each district were primed to readily accept it as full replacement for Dr. Damsker’s guidance. By the time September rolled around, the vast majority of Bucks County students began the academic year learning at home.
As for Quakertown, the QCSD Health & Safety Plan (revised on July 9, 2020) went with a 6-ft distancing requirement at the secondary level, effectively eliminating any possibility that middle school or high school students would start with a full-time option. At the elementary level, the Health & Safety Plan established a 3-ft distancing requirement at the elementary level, which should have ensured that QCSD elementary schools would open with a full-time option in September. During the August 13 QCSD Board Meeting, a presentation showing an analysis of each QCSD school’s capacity clearly showed that every single QCSD elementary school could meet the 3-ft distancing requirement using a full-time learning model. It didn’t matter. Dr. Harner still got his way. He simply convinced the easily-impressionable Board members that teachers needed to “ease into it” for the first 4 weeks of school. The Board voted 7-2 to abandon full-time instruction for all grade levels, including elementary. This vote effectively gave Dr. Harner what he wanted all along: to put 6-ft of distancing between all students at all grade levels, just like the CDC suggested.
QCSD Elementary students didn’t get a full-time option until the middle of October, and the middle-schoolers and high-schoolers had to wait until November.
Lingering Questions
Why did Dr. Harner seek counsel from Mr. Sultanik instead of from QCSD’s own solicitor (Mr. Jeffrey Garton of Begley, Carlin & Mandio, LLP)? Was Mr. Garton even made aware of Mr. Sultanik’s concerns?
How did the QCSD Board flip from being all about full-time school with limited restrictions in late June, to abandoning even elementary full-time school by August?
How many QCSD students were unnecessarily kept out of school because Dr. Harner pressured the board to forego Modified Quarantine, another Dr. Damsker protocol that was eventually proven to be completely correct and safe?
As the months have gone by, how has Dr. Harner felt about the harm he caused by keeping kids out school (harm that he already acknowledge would happen in his email to The Intell reporter)? How much education did the students miss out on, both from starting hybrid instead of full-time and from not utilizing Modified Quarantine? What about the impact to the community, what with moms and dads needing to stay home from work to help their kids?
I guess those questions just weren’t as important to Dr. Harner as getting his precious 6 feet.
“I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.”
Jonathan Swift
